Sage of a minimalist farming system based on non-violence and all of nature’s biodiversity that produces in abundance with no chemical inputs. by Bharat Mansata Bhaskar Save, acclaimed ‘Gandhi of Natural Farming’, turned 92 on 27 January 2014, having inspired and mentored 3 generations of organic farmers. Masanobu Fukuoka, the legendary Japanese natural farmer, visited… Read more »

Top left: Geoff Lawton inspects a towering Hardy Kiwi Fruit vine snaking across a number of trees. Right: Some of the fruit growing in the Food Forest system. Following up on the interest in Geoff Lawton’s earlier cold climate video on Ben Falk’s Permaculture Farm we’ve decided to show more details on another 40 year… Read more »

Geoff Lawton’s next video in his ever-expanding lineup takes you to Wadi Rum in Jordan where he consulted on a 10 acre organic farm and rebuilt their failing farm into a commercial success. Wadi Rum looks very much like your classic inhospitable desert region. It was used in the early 1960s as the backdrop set… Read more »

There’s something to be said for the scattergun technique. — planting over 300 edible plants in your backyard to see exactly what sticks, what takes off and what dies in the process. This is the technique used by Permaculture authors Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates when they converted their tiny 1/10 acre suburban backyard into… Read more »

This is the third of a series of articles looking at design considerations for our Cold Climate Permaculture site using the Keyline Scale of Permanence as a organizing framework, as well as an informative read for anyone interested.

Almonds A food forest is a lovely and interesting place to visit. Unfortunately, visitors only ever see the food forest as it is on that particular day when they visit. For example, if a person visited the food forest here today, they would see lots of ripe citrus, almonds, pears, plums, apples, peaches, nectarines and… Read more »

by Jack Spirko This is a presentation I gave in November 2013 when we installed the swales for our 3/4th acre food forest during an earthworks workshop. The class was mostly hands on — during this class we installed over 500 feet of swales on contour. We did do some classroom time though. This presentation… Read more »

Narrated by David Suzuki, this two-part CBC series is a fascinating look into the world of fruit hunters — people who travel the globe seeking rare fruits, to preserve their diversity, or just to enjoy. The documentary also covers some interesting background history on some of the fruits we’ve come to take for granted, and… Read more »

Ben Falk’s Cold Climate Permaculture Farm in Vermont A lot of people wonder if they can apply Permaculture design to their farm if they live in a cold climate. When Geoff Lawton visited Ben Falk’s farm in Vermont earlier this year, he saw the fruit of good permaculture design when applied with skillful observation. The… Read more »

Trailer only — Watch the full video here! When Geoff Lawton told me that he had discovered a novel way to use goats to design his food forest, it seemed a most unlikely idea. In fact I was a little skeptical. Were the goats replacing the work of his interns? Did he manage to train… Read more »